The global homicide rate falls between 5.6 and 5.8 per 100,000. For Jamaica to achieve this, in actual numbers, would require a reduction to approximately 150 murders per year. My prediction for this year is sub-500 — a figure not achieved since the early 90s.

In the early 90s we had a smaller population, the deportee problem was not a full-blown crisis, and the Colonel Trevor Macmillan purge of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had not yet begun. We still had the Suppression of Crime Act that allowed for indefinite detention, and there was no Indecom.

The environment now, obviously, does not resemble the environment then. But if 150 murders per year is achieved it would be the greatest achievement, as a nation, in our history.

It is ironic that at this point our greatest achievement is the reduction achieved in 2025. Some would say the 2012 Olympics was Jamaica’s greatest achievement, but to me, saving lives trumps everything else. To understand why one day we can achieve the 150 per year in a country that has recorded 1,690 murders in a year, you need to understand the police force we were compared to, the force we are, and the force we will one day become.

When I was sent to the St Catherine South Division by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Tilford Johnson decades ago to serve in the Special Operations Unit, I asked him what he would want me to do. He told me to create strategies to reduce the homicide rate and he would give me great men to lead my team — men just as solid to fight by my side.

I had served under his command on the Commissioner’s Task Force against illegal gambling. He always maintained that saving lives was the most important job with which the police force was entrusted.

He made good on his word. I was given great leaders like Rodney Mathews, Carey Duncan, and Camendo Thoms, who are now all superintendents. I also had the privilege of fighting beside great warriors like Ainsley Johnson and Donald “Saddam” Thompson, whose courage still makes me marvel.

Strategies were devised, plans were put into effect, and in some years we actually achieved the reduction. However, we had to watch the murder rate go right back up years later.

It was really hard to achieve a reduction and then watch it escalate. I took it personally. I still can’t come to grips with 2009, when the murder rate peaked at 163 in my division, and honestly, I can’t imagine what I could have done differently.

What I have learnt, though, and I can now tell you, is that a division can’t fight its crime in a vacuum. National factors impact divisional crime. The JCF, as an institution, is not the same as it was 15 years ago. We are over 15,000 strong, if you include both the JCF and the rural police force, all sworn police officers.

The level of digital oversight is beyond your imagination. Deputy Commissioner of Police Warren Clarke can stay at his desk and know which team is on duty, where they are, and what they are actually supposed to be doing. He knows who did or didn’t do operations in specific time periods at area and divisional levels, and how crime was impacted by comparison in that zone.

Then there is JamaicaEye with technological capabilities you can’t imagine, capabilities I’m not going to share with you. There is also the Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Division, which handles phone evidence.

Very importantly, there is legislation now that could make the Gestapo blush, with laws that can put you away for decades for gun offences.

There is also legislation specific to what you can and can’t do with your phone, which ranges from sending inappropriate messages to a juvenile to having a photo of a gun. Unbelievable tools exist legislatively to fight crime. I have not even mentioned the anti-gang legislation.

The technology is way ahead of where we used to be. Our forensics lab did a ballistic match that the majority of the world said couldn’t be done in the Jolyan Silvera case and they were correct. He confessed, didn’t he!

It’s simply a better force than it was in respect of resources, and this makes a difference. It didn’t happen overnight. Many leaders have overseen improvements little by little till we are left with the product we now have.

The passion and focus of so many committed leaders and officers on the ground are at a level I have never seen before. This, I think, is Dr Kevin Blake’s greatest achievement as commissioner of police. His ability to motivate the 15,000 plus members is the tool the gang leaders did not budget for.

When a murder is committed now, I see the literal pain in the face of Superintendent Troyville Haughton and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Leighton Grey, my respective operational and divisional commanders.

I expect a call from Assistant Commissioner of Police Howard Chambers and SSP Tomielee Chambers expressing their genuine disappointment and concern. I see constables and sub-officers foregoing their private obligations to prevent reprisals, genuinely hurt because a murder has been committed.

Once you consider this degree of passion, coupled with the resources we have now, I see the sub-500 as a reality for this year. However, to achieve the global homicide rate will require a lot more of everything, among them a total defeat of Jamaican criminal gangs. This would then allow the force to put in all necessary resources to stop brothers killing brothers. Don’t underestimate the impact of domestic murders on our statistics and how hard we currently combat it.

The total defeat of the gangs will have to be a national effort from society, not just from the police force. The political parties, the human rights organisations, even the Church would have to say “No more”.

The average citizen will have to believe it is their problem, and decide that they are going to stand up.

History has recorded the courage of the average citizen in many conflicts when they were needed. Not every German citizen was a willing executioner of Jews in Nazi Germany. The White Rose resistance group was made up of German citizens who fought Nazi tyranny. The French Resistance in occupied France in World War II is well documented.

Society, poverty, and political parties created our gangs. It will require a national movement to defeat them. We have the tools legislatively. We have the boots on the ground. We have the leadership, we have the political will, and we have Dr Blake. What we now need is you.

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